Join us at the Polish Vodka Museum for a tasting.
Unexpected results of last week’s conference …
“If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.” The words of Heraclitus. Life was probably simpler in the sixth and fifth centuries BC, leaving plenty of time for Greeks to philosophise, but in the divine comedy that is the modern world, the unexpected seems ever present, whether serached for or not. At least, this is perhaps what the Polish prime minister thinks as he considers the unexpected results of last week’s conference on the Middle East in Warsaw, jointly organised by Poland and the United States.
Mateusz Morawiecki has said that he will not attend the meeting of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia) scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on 18th– 19thFebruary. This decision follows the spat over comments allegedly made by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu during the conference. His comments, which were widely reported, were interpreted as suggesting Polish complicity in the Nazi German persecution of Jews during the Second Word War.
Netanyahu’s office said that the Israeli prime minister “spoke of Poles and not the Polish people or the country of Poland. This was misquoted and misrepresented in press reports and was subsequently corrected by the journalist who issued the initial misstatement.” Speaking to Polish Radio on Saturday, the head of the Polish Prime Minister’s Office, Michał Dworczyk, said:“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office clarified the matter in a statement, denying the report contained in the Jerusalem Post. I think this statement closes the issue”. If only events were not so unexpected.
For hot on the heels of Nethanyahu’s remarks came the remarks of Israel’s newly appointed foreign minister, Israel Katz, who reportedly claimed that Poles “suckled anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk.” Morawiecki said of this comment by Katz: “This is an example of racist anti-Polonism.”
Addressingjournalists on Monday morning, Morawiecki said: “At the moment we are waiting for a firm reaction to the reprehensible, unacceptable and simply racist words of the newly-appointed foreign minister of Israel.” He added: “If there is no such reaction from the other side, we will wish them the best possible meeting, but [Foreign] Minister Jacek Czaputowicz will also not attend the meeting in Israel.”Czaputowicz had been due to go instead of the prime minister.
For some commentators this and the danger of creating bad relations with Iran – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said: “We see what’s happening in Warsaw, it’s an empty result, nothing” – is exactly the sort problem that might have been expected by the Polish government’s allowing itself to be bounced into hosting the conference with the United States. And the US Vice President’s unexpected and outspoken criticism of EU member states’ approach to the US sanctions on Iran (please see here) is more grist to their particular mill.
However, as Czaputowicz himself said, the deepening diplomatic collaboration between Warsaw and Washington D.C. was one of the advantages of the conference, as was the opportunity to contribute to peace in the Middle East and thus fulfil the country’s role as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. As to allegations of exacerbating strained relations between Warsaw and Tehran and putting Poland’s safety at risk, Czaputowicz said that the view that Iran is a country causing problems was shared by the European Union.
It is difficult not to have some sympathy with the Polish government, whose position is no different from that faced by all hosts whose guests step out of line. For Poland, continuing and strong relations with the United States make eminent sense and, as other close allies will testify, not least the United Kingdom, the occasional embarrassment and hurt feelings is par for the course. US exceptionalism also extends to diplomatic niceties, especially under the current presidency.
Be that as it may, Poland ploughs on, no doubt hoping that last week’s conference has indeed brought it some US goodwill. Thus, Polish defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak is hoping for the best in talks underway with US officials about establishing a new permanent American army base in Poland. Speaking on Saturday, after meetings with US Senate Armed Services Committee officials in Germany during the Munich Security Conference, he said: “We are discussing details, and I think we are on the right track to achieve success. My yesterday’s meeting with [acting US Secretary of Defense] Patrick Shanahan is a proof for that”. He did not disclose any timeframe for the project. “This is of course a process. I don’t want to set any deadlines for that process to end … I hope for a success,” he added.
Perhaps fools do rush in where angels dare to tread, especially in relation to Middle East diplomatic minefields, but let’s end as we began with Heraclitus: big results require big ambitions.
Rafako will build a compressor station for Gaz-System
Rafako has signed a PLN 207.5 million (gross) agreement with Gaz-System to build the Kędzierzyn compressor station. This sixteenth gas compressor station in Poland is planned to be finished by the Spring of 2021.
The task is to build the station together with the accompanying infrastructure, including the assembly of three compressor aggregates, supplied by the investor. The timeline for the completion of the works is 25 months. Gaz-System stressed that a gas compressor station in Kędzierzyn-Koźle is one of the key investments in South-Western Poland.
‘It will work as another element of the North-South gas corridor. At stage one, it will be equipped with three compressor aggregates powered by gas turbines of 23 MW total power. The plan, however, is to have six aggregates of 69 MW total’ the company’s statement says.
Gaz-System explains that the new station will make it possible to send gas to the Southern and Eastern parts of Poland, allowing for higher gas collection in those areas, thus contributing to improving air quality.
Its placement in a string of the North-South transmission gas pipelines corridor will secure stable natural gas transmission, especially via the new high-diameter (1000 mm) pipelines.
After commisioning, the station will be an element of the upgraded transmission system, enabling the diversification of the natural gas sources and integration with the European market. It will also create new job for the construction and, later, exploitation of the compressor station.
The gas sector is a strategic development direction for Rafako: ‘Winning this contract is a proof of the trust the investor has in our competences broadened to include oil and gas. It also shows that financial institutions believe in our capability in this field’ said Jerzy Wiśniewski, Rafako’s CEO.
‘For this contract, we obtained a guarantee of proper performance and advance return guarantee worth PLN 41.5 million, undera new guarantee commitment provided to us by mBank’ he added.
POLAND DAILY CULTURE VISITS THE VODKA MUSEUM
Entering the museum, one can find many interactive exhibitions, screenings and presentations which tell the history of vodka production throughout the centuries. We can also get valuable information and fun facts about the impact of vodka on the Polish culture and about its international career. The museum is sponsored by the Polish Vodka Association.
First democratically elected Polish Prime Minister after the fall of communism has been buried
Jan Olszewski passed away on February 7th at the age of 88. He was responsible for seeing through the agreement which made the Soviet Red Army leave Poland after 49 years of occupation. Prime Minister Olszewski was one of the leading figures fighting for lustration of the political elite following the collapse of the communist system in Central Eastern Europe, trying to steer Poland in a direction which would allow Poles to keep prominent communists and agents as well as informers of the communist security services away from political power.
The funeral ceremony started at 11AM at St. John’s Archcathedral in Warsaw. Polish President Andrzej Duda and many other top officials were present to pay their respect, including one of Olszewski’s closest friends, former Minister of Defence Antoni Macierewicz who stayed by Olszewski’s side in the final hours of his life.
The cortege with the Prime Minister’s body, accompanied by the Polish Army’s Guard of Honor and large crowds of mourners, arrived at the Powązki Cemetary shortly after 3PM.
Jan Olszewski was born in 1930 and turned 14 during the Warsaw Uprising against Nazi Germany. Despite his young age, Olszewski participated in the uprising as a message boy serving in the Grey Ranks organized by the Polish Scouting Organization. His pseudonym during the uprising was Orlik and he actively participated in a successful attack on German position at a school in the region of Bródno.
Following the war, Olszewski went on to study law at the University of Warsaw, from which he graduated in 1953. Shortly before the political thaw known as “Polish October” following the Poznań 1956 protests, Olszewski penned an article in defense of the veterans of the Home Army, the legitimate military underground organization during the Second World War, who after the war were persecuted by the communist authorities.
The communist government quickly closed down the Olszewski’s publication and gave Olszewski a publication ban for having voiced anti-socialist concepts. The event marked the start of Olszewski’s life as a political dissident. He became a member of the clandestine discussion group for intellectuals critical of the communist government known as “Klub Krzywego Koła” (The Club of the Crooked Circle).
Until the fall of communism in 1989, Olszewski used position as a skilled lawyer to defend other political dissidents in court against the regime. One of the most famous cases he would participate in was the 1984 trial against the members of secret service who had murdered one of the main spiritual leaders of the Solidarity movement, the Catholic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko.
Olszewski himself was one of the most prominent members of the solidarity movement and one of its most active legal counsels. He advised Solidarity on legal issues during the 1989 Round Table Talks after which the period of transition of power from the communist regime to democratic state was started. In the following years, Olszewski became highly critical of the way the democratic opposition had acted after the Round Table Talks. He argued that many leaders of the Solidarity movment instead of removing the communist elite from power, had been co-opted by them and now helped them to cement their political and financial influence in the new democratic Polish III Republic
Olszewski became the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the III Republic after the Parliamentary elections of 1991. Olszewski quickly entered into conflict with the political establishment in three key policy issues.
He opposed the neoliberal “shock-therapy” advocated by the Minister of Finance, Leszek Balcerowicz, and swiftly removed him from his cabinet. Olszewski argued that shock-therapy resulted in an unacceptable rise of unemployment while also selling out assets of the Polish state for pennies to private interests.
Secondly, Olszewski clashed with President Lech Wałesa on the issue of the removal of Soviet troops from Polish territory and on the position whether Poland should join NATO or not. Olszewski criticized Wałesa for planning to sign an agreement with the Soviet which would allow them to remove the bulk of their troops from Poland but retain certain presence in the military bases they had created in Poland after 1945. Olszewski made it clear to Wałesa that the President didn’t have the authority to sign such an agreement and that it would have sabotaged Poland’s plans on joining NATO.
The Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, the same month that Olszewski was elected Prime Minister. It sped up the decision by Poland declare in official state documents the country’s intention was join NATO and remove all Soviet forces from Polish territory. The Polish stance was not received well in the newly created Russian Federation which still viewed Poland as laying within its sphere of influence. President Wałesa seemed to support the Russian position as he travelled to Germany in March 1992 and declared that he wanted Poland and other countries in Central Eastern Europe to create an organization called NATO bis instead of joining NATO itself.
The new organization would be a military alliance consisting of former Soviet satellite states in Central Eastern Europe and would receive security guarantees by both the U.S. and the Russian Federation. Wałesa’s announcement had not been consulted with Olszewski’s governemnt and came right before a planned state visit of Olszewski to the U.S. Walesa’s announcement had made Poland come across as internally divided and not ready to join NATO.
The third policy area in which OIszewski clashed with Wałesa as well as large parts of the liberal and socialists factions on the political scene concerned the issue of lustration. The lustration process was meant to shed light on the individuals who had participated in the crimes of communist regime or served as agents and informants of the security services during communism. It could be considered a Central European equivalent of the de-Nazification process which took place in Germany following the Second World War.
Czechoslovakia was first out with legislation on lustration in October 1991. Olszewski’s government followed suit by passing a lustration bill which had been presented in parliament on May 28th 1992. A couple of days later, the Minister of Interior Antoni Macierewicz released a list of names of informers having worked for the communist secret services ,which had been compiled based on information available in classified state archives.
President Wałesa’s name was on the list together with the Speaker of the Parliament and 62 other names of members of the government, parliament and the senate.
Making the names of the informers public was one of the last acts of Olszewski’s government which didn’t survive a vote of no-confidence later that night. The decommunization bill which had started the process of lustration was later declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Tribunal.
Olszewski was replaced as Prime Minister by Waldemar Pawlak, a political ally of President Lech Wałesa, and never returned to a high position in Polish politics again. However, he did form a new party which barely made it across the parliamentary threshold in the parliamentary elections of 1997. He did also serve as a presidential adviser to Lech Kaczyński between 2006 and Kaczyński’s death in the Smolensk Air Disaster on April 10th 2010.
As Poles mourn the loss of the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Polish III Republic, the legacy of Jan Olszewski lives on. His stance on key policy issues has been vindicated as years have passed by. Polish public opinion has veered in a conservative direction in recent years and Olszewski’s stance on issues such as the Round Table Talks, shock-therapy, NATO-bis and lustration is now shared by large parts of society.
It took more than 20 years after the fall of Olszewski’s government but the national conservative ideas he professed did eventually take root in Polish society and particularly with young Poles. Regardless of his short time in office, the late Prime Minister will surely be remembered as one of the great political figures who lead Poland through the transformation from a communist regime to a democratic state.
William Richardson and Artur Górniewski explore the history of Poland in Warsaw's Old Town.
The Old Town is a bustling tourism hub, with cobblestone alleys and medieval buildings reconstructed after WWII. At its heart is Rynek Starego Miasta, a busy square lined with burgher houses and upscale Polish eateries. Nearby, St. John’s Archcathedral dates back to the 14th century.
What can Polish travelers expect from his first visit to an U.S. airport? LOT Polish Airlines explains
LOT Polish Airlines has launched the campaign “Without visas to the USA”, aimedto encourage as many people as possible to apply for American visas and to do so correctly. For the purposes of the campaign, the website www.bezwizdousa.pl has been started, where it’s possible for travllers to get familiar with how to meet the required criteria for being granted a visa. With the campaign, LOT also helps Polish passengers to understand what is required from them once they land in the US. So what does a first-time traveller need to know?
We have landed happily in the USA. And what now? Only the last hurdle at the custom and immigration control and all the opportunites the United States has to offer will be waiting for us.
In addition to picking up your luggage, you will have to talk to an immigration official. It’s a standard procedure that everyone who comes to America passes through. It does not matter if they come with a visa or from a country which is encompassed by a visa-free travel program – a conversation is obligatory and it will always take place in English.The situation in which Polish passengers are denied entry into the US is extremely rare – people who have correctly defined the purpose of their trip have no reason to worry. However, if it turns out after arriving in the US, that our actual reason for arrival differs
from the one declared (for example, if there is a suspicion that you have arrived on a tourist visa but plan to find a job), an immigration officer may come to the conclusion that you have violated immigration regulations. Then the traveler may receive a decision to refuse entry to the USA and is sent back to the country of origin. Severe violation of the law, may even result in a temporary ban on entering the US. Otherwise, you will be able to appeal the decision, but only after returning to Poland by filling out the form on the website of the Department of Homeland Security (www.dhs.gov/trip).
An immigration officer will definately be interested in the your customs declaration that you have filled out on the plane. A passenger can also expect a couple of standard questions, for example about the places you plan to visit in the U.S. There is nothing to fear: most of the questions have already been answered when you filled the DS-160 document necessary for being granted a visa. The official will also take your fingerprints. At the official’s request, place your thumb and four fingers on the special glass panel. A photo of you will also be taken on the spot. Then just a stamp in your passport and you have passed through immigration.
Take your passport with a long-awaited stamp, your checked baggage and at the customs control point hand over the customs declaration. It may happen that you will be randomly selected for a personal check. It’s also a standard procedure that you do not have to worry about. Just remember not to bring things with that are forbidden to the US, usually the main problem is different kinds of food. When you leave the departure hall, the United States is open for exploration and it is up to you what you want to do and see in this great and beautiful country.